Ernest Drucker, an internationally recognized public ealth scholar, professor and physician, contends that mass incarceration ought to be understood as a contagious disease, an epidemic of gargantuan proportions. With voluminous data and meticulous analysis, he persuasively demonstrates in his provocative new book, “A Plague of Prisons,” that the unprecedented surge in incarceration in recent decades is a social catastrophe on the scale of the
worst global epidemics, and that modes of analysis employed by epidemiologists to combat plagues and similar public health crises are remarkably useful when assessing the origins, harm and potential cures for what he calls our “plague of imprisonment.” …

Drucker traces the moment of outbreak to the war on drugs. Beginning with the Rockefeller drug laws adopted in New York state in the 1970s, followed by President Ronald Reagan’s declaration of war in 1982, our nation set out to incarcerate millions of Americans for relatively minor crimes
and drug offenses. Such arrests go a long way toward explaining how the “infection” has spread. Arrests and convictions for drug offenses, Drucker writes, “are the most important agent of transmission that creates new cases of incarceration.”

Whether the metaphor holds up or not, comparing mass incarceration to an outbreak of infectious disease is a new and interesting way to look at the problem.

Drucker’s argument leaves a nagging question unanswered, however: Why is this happening? … William J. Stuntz thinks he has an answer. A
Harvard Law professor who died earlier this year, Stuntz argues in “The Collapse of American Criminal Justice” that the stunning surge in imprisonment of poor people of color can be explained by two factors: a dramatic spike in crime in the 1950s and ’60s, coupled with profound changes in how our democracy is structured. Urban residents, he observes, once had far more control over police
and prosecutors and could exert more influence in the jury box. When those who bear the costs of both crime and punishment exercise significant power over those who enforce the law, a more balanced and empathetic approach to crime is the predictable result.

An interesting theory — in essence, the reason this sickness has spread is because we — voters — have let it. We have stopped holding prosecutors, police, and legislators accountable in the courthouse and at the ballot box. Legislators who pass tough sentencing laws stay in office partly because we let them.

Contact Us

Looking for a Speaker?

Why not have one of our unnoticed victims, the family members and/or loved ones of RFSOs, to speak at your organization's next get-together? We also love to speak at faith based meetings. Our founder does most of our speaking engagements and our main goal is to educate the audience on the real facts about sex offenders and issues facing New Jersey.

Email: Contact@NJFAIR.org

Archives

Share

Top Clicks

None

Top Rated

NOTICE

This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of political, medical/scientific, economic, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use